Radford Football Club

General information

Founded in 1964 as Manlove & Alliots FC and played in the Nottinghamshire Sunday league. Manlove & Alliots were a Engineering firm situated in Radford. After the firm transfered to Scotland in 1970/71, the club carried on under the name of Radford Olympic FC.

In 1977 we became the first amateur side in Britain to be allowed to wear advertising on our shirts and the BBC Television came along to our home ground on Melbourne Park and filmed one of our matches and interviewed officials for the evening programme "Nationwide". In 1978 we formed a ground developement committee and decided to seek out a piece of ground preferably in the Radford area for development of our own ground. Radford Olympic transferred to Saturday Football and made progress up the leagues and in 1982/83 finished Champions of the East Midlands Regional League. In 1983/84, we won the Central Midlands League Senior Cup.

In 1987 Radford Olympic were renamed Radford F.C. At the end of 2002/03 we were promoted to the Supreme Division of the Central Midlands League and in our first season in the top flight we finished 11th. After holding our own during the seasons 2003/04 & 2004/05 in the top league of the Central Midlands League, the club delivered silverware in the season 2005/06 under the guidance of Julian Gamston and assistant Pete Kelley, winning the C.M.L Phoenix Trophies floodlight Cup and equally impressive was the equal fifth place finish in the C.M.L Supreme Division which in an extremely tough league was a excellent acheivement and puts the club in fine shape to build on this success in the 2006/07 campaign. In addition new floodlighting and 1st phase significant ground improvements were actioned with Notts County providing a team to officially turn on the lights in early 2006. During season 2005/6 a seated stand was completed.

Of course nothing stands still, and work over 2007/08 season continued at a frantic pace as the ground was further developed to meet 'Grade G' standard. This was achieved by the 31st March 2008 which put us in a prime position to be promoted to a higher level in the football pyramid. Improvements to the ground included upgrading of the hard standing around the perimeters of the pitch, extending the dug outs to accommodate 8 people, extra ladies toilets, protected walkway onto the pitch for players, toilet facilities in all changing room areas and a separate entrance for spectators to gain access into the club house. Season 2008/09, will be a big challenge for Radford F.C. as we move up a level to the new East Midlands Counties Football League and apply for competitions that this allows us. Ground improvements continue with the construction of a covered standing area, a supporters club has been born who will also be involved in running a club shop.